✅ Scrap the Graph

So I’ve had Monzo / Mondo from the start now, and what seemed like a great little feature at first, has become more of a nusence now.

Good points:

  • I thought this would help predict when I was going to run out of cash
  • I thought it would help me compare months, and therefor curb my spending. So a steep line at first, then a shallower line as months passed.

Bad points

  • Because the graph changes scale depending on the amount of money in the account, each month looks wildly different
  • It also scales to accommodate a large spike, which scales down the rest of the graph to something useless
  • It’s not clear when you’re in your overdraft. So looking back through months, there’s not a -£0 colour change or something
  • It takes up a lot of space at the top

Summary
It’s just a steadily downward graph, every month, and for me, it doesn’t add value. Can I turn this off? And if not, can an option be added to turn this off, or at least replace it with a smaller version of the rings from the new summary page?

I thought having a flattened out summary ring would look better. Like a single bar that emptied over time, with a notch showing how many days left, just like the summary page.

This wouldn’t take up too much space. Plus, clicking on it could take you to the actual sumary page. You could even animate the transition into a circle as you moved from one page to the next.

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Monzo and Hugo in particular have said we are stuck with the graph forever as it’s part of their overall design. There was a huge thread where it basically ended up with "Monzo knows best :wink: " as their reason.

I agree its pointless for me too, i’m never anywhere near a negative balance so its always a steady graph down, jumps at payday and then continues the same every month. At this point I just ignore it and don’t look at it

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I like it and find it very useful :woman_shrugging:

Previous threads Can someone explain the graph?

There are more but icba so search pulse or graph

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@hugo’s thoughts on toggling it on and off. I agree with Monzo’s stance on this.

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Yep. I wholeheartedly agree that the line graph is a pointless waste of space, and what encouraged me to go away and try out the competitor’s offerings.

I will continue to scroll down the page if I want to see pass transactions or visit the summary page and I will not be scrolling back thru the stupid graph to find a past date.

As most of my outgoings will always occurred on the same days money comes in for most of any month the graph is just a pointless flat line. It is a depressing waste of space. It would be better located on a separate “analytics” or “summary” page.

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The Graph was the most pointless thing on the app until # but yeah I hate it, so much space wasted on something that doesn’t even work properly and so far can’t be fixed… now we also have this Donut* of Doom to contend with. Oh the joys.

*Doughnut for Mirow :wink:

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The Pulse graph make the #tags look wonderful in comparison!

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I like it at the pages as I think it looks good however it provides no valuable function as far as I can see. Like mentioned above I think a solid double bar that empties over the month as you spend would save a lot of space and look equally as cool.

SmartSelect_20180502-084548_Chrome

Bar 1 = how much money you have
Bar 2 = how much money you should have to be on target …

I feel Pulse would be much better if it was always centred on the current day. It could then include a line showing when your next salary payment is expected (based upon summary) and a projected line of how long it thinks your money will last, with a date range provided on the X-axis

At the moment, it is a purely aesthetic feature. Okay, granted it can be used to scroll backwards, but I don’t tend to use it for this.

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I dunno I think the graph has a fair bit of potential. It’s just frustratingly basic at the moment. It needs some love.

I still think it’s better than the huge colour changing doughnut on the Summary page which may aswell just be a straight line. But, then again, like most of the features Monzo currently has it’s just (hopefully) a first iteration.

Turning the phone landscape to trigger a larger and more detailed pulse graph would be great. Make it easier to search, highlight things and so on.

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Yeah, I feel like Monzo must have big plans for what this will one day look like, otherwise they would have moved / changed / removed it by now…

I’m all for data mining your own finances to reveal spending patterns and so on, but right now, it does just seem a basic aesthetic thing that I should be able to opt out of

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I still stand by my recommendation that it be hidden by default.

TL;DR: Essentially, exactly the same as is now. Just hidden by default and pull down from the top.

Longer version: If you wanna see it, just pull down from the top of the screen. Doesn’t matter how far down the list of transactions you are, but the graph displayed (if you have pulled it down) will reflect wherever in your transaction list you’ve scrolled to.

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Yeah, this is like the summary ring, but flat. And instead of a second bar, you’d have the moving notch.

I think something like this, right now, would be way more useful than the graph. But as people have said, maybe the graph has some hidden potential that I, one day, won’t be able to live without :thinking:

I’d quite like to see a bar like this in the Monzo widget for iOS. As well as the full ring on Watch.

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It certainly does have potential. I can’t find the original post or video to quote, but I remember hearing that it’ll eventually show upcoming direct debits and standing orders and alert you if you won’t have enough funds available.

I do agree though that in its current form it’s pretty useless :confused:

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I can’t believe it doesn’t take direct debits and standing orders into account yet.

I thought it would be doing that when the current account beta started in July last year…

Thanks for all this feedback - it’s really helpful! :raised_hands:

I’m going to pass it back to the team so we can have a think about options here :ok_hand:

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At least it’s not a massive, full screen doughnut showing you how much you spent today and absolutely nothing else like Starling has. I agree though that I completely ignore the graph - I’m looking solely at the numbers.

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@hugo I just want to add some balance to this thread for users who appreciate the Pulse Graph.

At first I was sceptical as to its purpose but over time trying to hit my targets, it’s really helped me to consumption smooth. I now take visual cues and love to see a smooth downward sloping Pulse graph as opposed to a lumpy/choppy one I had before.

This is my 2 cents and I really like this suggestion:

Also, for the Pulse graph haters, it appears they’re here to stay as even Revolut has updated their app to include them today:

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I would like something similar to this, where the pulse just shows me how far over, or under target my spending is.

So if I’m perfectly on target then my pulse line is in the middle of the graph (there would be a zero line there). If I’m underspending then my pulse line will dip below the zero line and turn orange. If I’m underspending :raised_hands: then the line goes up and green.

That way I can see over time if I’ve reduced my spending enough to hit my targets, and how long I need to keep my spending reduced to hit the targets.

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Thanks for your feedback @Matteo!

It sounds like you might have read this already, but for the benefit of anyone new to this thread, some of the team behind Pulse held a Q&A here on the forum after the launch. It’s full of info about how it works and what our plans for Pulse are!